Your access-all ARIAs pass

Christine Sams dishes up the goss on what the country's hottest
musicians did, who they did it with, and what got them on the dance
floor.

Party hostess ... Erica Baxter.Photo: Janie Barrett

Standing near the entrance to one of the hottest after-parties
at the ARIA Awards, a tall, dark-haired brunette enthusiastically
welcomed guests inside. "Welcome to my party," she said gleefully,
with a sweep of her hand - gesturing towards the Sony BMG event
that was crammed with partygoers.

It was Erica Baxter, hanging solo after being accompanied by her
on-again, off-again beau James Packer to the main awards ceremony
at Acer Arena in Homebush.

Packer, who seemed cheerful and relaxed throughout the night,
earlier told a friend, "This is my first ARIAs, I'm excited." He
later nodded along to the live performances by the Veronicas and
Wolfmother, although he looked nonplussed when Daniel Johns
scrawled "PG 4 PM" on the wall during Silverchair's tribute to
Midnight Oil.

Packer's power table at the ARIAs included Denis Handlin,
chairman of Sony BMG, and visiting singer John Mayer. (Though Mayer
later admitted he didn't know who the billionaire was - "Who's
James Packer?" he asked innocently.)

Being on the main floor of the ARIAs event is like being inside
the goldfish bowl of music stardom - all the big players are
mingling with each other, from the rock stars dominating
nominations (Wolfmother, Eskimo Joe, Bernard Fanning) to the senior
record label executives who help propel them to stardom.

And yes, there are Idol and Big Brother stars and
Kamahl (of course), all adding to the colourful stories behind
Australian music's biggest awards night.

As one of the international guests on the night, Mayer performed
on stage with Pete Murray, but it was obvious he was keen to keep
up appearances beforehand. "How many drinks have you had?" he asked
Murray, at one point before they went on stage. "I don't want to
get ahead of you, man."

Murray's new wife Amanda proved to be a fabulous party guest,
with her warm and exuberant personality. She also had a spot-on
theory about surviving the lengthy awards ceremony: "Getting
pissed."

Andrew Stockdale and the members of Wolfmother had a marvellous
night, with three wins including best rock album and best group,
but behind the scenes their antics were causing a few raised
eyebrows. "That whole stage-trashing thing was stupid . . . it was
so try-hard," said one industry observer, although the band looked
like they were having fun. (They had perhaps been inspired by
Johnny Knoxville from the Jackass series who, for once in
his life, seemed tame by comparison.)

Stockdale could be hardly accused of making insightful comments
on stage - in one of his notable speeches of the night he said:
"Yeah . . . there's all these bands out there." That wasn't exactly
surprising Andrew - it was the ARIAs, after all.

By comparison, the warmest speaker on the night was best female
winner Clare Bowditch, who won a lot of new fans with her excited
revelation she was expecting twins. Despite the hype surrounding
Silverchair's Oils tribute (we would have dearly loved to see
Midnight Oil play) the truly spine-tingling moment of the night was
when Bowditch, Kasey Chambers and Fanning performed Watch Over
Me. The entire stadium listened silently, in awe of the
song.

The seating arrangements inside Acer Arena were the subject of
continued gossip - and a touch of sniping - throughout the night.
When Eskimo Joe stood on stage and warmly thanked their partners,
who were sitting in the audience, a member of Augie March muttered,
"How come they got to bring their girlfriends?"

Hilltop Hoods were seated away from the main floor, despite
having five nominations, mainly because they don't belong to a
leading record company. They were seated near the fresh crop of
Australian Idol stars, who were besieged by curious
well-wishers. Last year's winner Kate DeAraugo tried to cosy up
with the new Idols, but they seemed uninterested.

Meanwhile Guy Sebastian was enjoying a quiet gossip with fellow
Idol graduate Anthony Callea. It was good to see Sebastian
kicking back and relaxing during the awards, including knocking
back a few red wines with his girlfriend Jules.

Coolest table of the night was the TV Rock table, where they
were loudly celebrating two ARIA awards. Excuse the pun, but they
had every right to flaunt it!

Although rock artists were the heroes of the night, it was a
true thrill for Human Nature when they won their first-ever ARIA
award, for highest-selling album. All the band members thanked
their wives, apart from Toby Allen who simply said "I love you
Darren". It was a lovely and dignified way to acknowledge his own
partner (good on you, Toby).

And it was vodkas all round for Human Nature who were rightfully
over the moon about their win after such a long and successful
career.

Toby and Darren were later spotted on the dance floor at the
after-party, where groups ranging from Youth Group to Hilltop Hoods
were kicking up their heels. (Believe it or not, the hot songs on
the dance floor included Wham! tracks and Farnsey's Take the
Pressure Down.) Danny Allen from Youth Group seemed to be
particularly keen on showing off his dance skills amid the Hilltop
Hoods' hip-hop posse.

The after-parties were split across a number of levels inside
Acer Arena, with some record companies completely sectioning
themselves off from others. There was also an exclusive A-list
party inside the InterContinental Sydney in Circular Quay, which
played host to Fanning, the Wolfmother boys, Johns and guests
including Mick Molloy. The Veronicas, Jess and Lisa Origliasso,
popped their heads into the party briefly, while others including
Fanning stayed for the long haul.

Johns was still up at 4am, hanging on the balcony with Myles
Heskett from Wolfmother, enjoying a smoko break. Ben Gillies from
Silverchair was in merry form, jokingly wandering into the female
toilets in the early hours of the morning.

Molloy, who was dressed in his usual shabby chic (i.e. jeans and
a T-shirt) meandered past a taxi queue at 4.30am with his brother
John and a friend. Molloy is one of our favourite down-to-earth
comedians, but he left the venue in true millionaire style -
perhaps courtesy of the profits from Crackerjack and his new
flick BoyTown. He was greeted by a sleek, gleaming black BMW
(with a driver) at the door of the hotel.

Meanwhile, back at the Novotel hotel in Homebush, the members of
Eskimo Joe were holding up the bar - sharing their joy about their
two ARIA awards with punters. Veteran rockers Midnight Oil spent
hours at the Sony BMG party, which was full of revellers until the
early hours of Monday morning.

Rob Hirst, the Oils drummer, earlier summed up the band's career
with these words: "This amazing journey, this strange, fantastic
dream." He might as well have been describing ARIAs night itself -
such was the scale of the celebrations.

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